Spring in Tervenichi.

 Not so much spring, may be said summer, since that was on May, 30rd. That wasn’t scheduled, even considered, just an accidental drive-in due to circumstances on my way back. I was the only visitor at the nunnery that morning, except for very few locals going to liturgy.

What’s wrong here? Clear sky is typically ruled out by me while making preparations for landscape photography, but here, since my trip route was changed suddenly, I had to use whatever turned up. The results are here below. As we see, strong contrasts were inevitable outcome of a deep blue sky, noise level is high and nothing can be done to remedy that without considerable quality deterioration. 

Firstly, a group of panoramic (actually just one is a stitch) images, not too successful due to white balance errors:

A general view of the nunnery from a field, f14, 1/100s, CPL-filter:

 

Contrasts, f14, 1/80s, CPL filter:

A couple of shots taken with different lenses. The first taken with a standard zoom 24-85 mm + CPL filter:

  

Nikkor AIS 28 mm, f16, 1/50s, CPL filter:

Chapels, Nikkor AIS 28 mm, f16, 1/50s, CPL filter:

A panoramic view with a lake and chapels, the same settings:

An autamnal day in Tervenichi.

That was an accidental, totally unplanned trip. Everything went on exactly as the previous time : having felt that I lost all strength to keep on driving along the main road I took a turn to Alekhovshchina to avoid anything worse. Of course, dropped in Tervenichi on my way back. The weather should be said seemed the most inclement for the landscape photography and that is technically true as drizzling hampered to change lenses and covered them with droplets, but the result proved the opposite of what I expected. 

A downstairs view with the Life-giving Spring chapel, standard lens, f11, 1/15s, CPL filter:

The same view, f11, 1/20s, a bit different polarization:

The Intercession of The Holy Theotocos church (center) and partly the Assumption Refectory church (right), standard lens, f11, 1/15s, CPL filter:

The same view with a bit different focal distance and polarization:

The Assumption Refectory church, upstairs view, f11, 1/20s, CPL filter:

Chapels view, f11, 1/15s, CPL filter:

Upstairs view, f11, 1/10s, CPL filter:

The same shot, but something shifted:

The Life-giving Spring chapel, standard lens, f11, 1/15s, CPL filter:

A view from a field, f11, 1/10s, CPL filter:

Chapels (actually the second one isn't a chapel, that is for ablutions), f11, 1/10s, CPL filter:

The same view, f11, 1/15s:

A general view from the chapels, f11, 1/15s, CPL filter:

The same view with an AIS Nikkor 28 mm, f11, 1/15s, CPL filter:

Upstairs view with The Assumption church in the center, AIS Nikkor 28 mm, f11, 1/15s, CPL filter:

The Assumption church, AIS Nikkor 28 mm, f11, 1/15s, CPL filter:

Downstairs view, AIS Nikkor 28 mm, f11, 1/20s, CPL filter:

The Intercession of The Holy Theotocos church, AIS Nikkor 28 mm, f11, 1/20s, CPL filter:

The Assumption church from behind an altar, AIS Nikkor 28 mm, f11, 1/10s, CPL filter:

A closer view, f11, 1/15s:

The Assumption church and nunnery shop as seen from the central road, AIS Nikkor 28 mm, f11, 1/20s, CPL filter:

The Intercession of The Holy Theotocos church main entrance, AIS Nikkor 28 mm, f11, 1/15s, CPL filter:

The Intercession of The Holy Theotocos church southern view, AIS Nikkor 28 mm, f11, 1/15s, CPL filter:

The Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple nunnery.

Weather conditions like that must always be avoided, but unfortunately there was no alternative on my way back from Tervenichi. Let's play with contrasts, if we have no other option. An old Nikkor worked its best here. 

Northern view from a river bank. Kit 24-85 mm lens, f14, 1/50s, CPL filter.

The old Nikkor works as usual, featuring fantastically deep space. The trick here was in a closed aperture. I'll make no secret of that: f16, 1/60 s, CPL filter. 

Another view from a stream flowing into the river. Not the best one, since absence of clouds resulted in polarization circles that couldn't be removed. Kit lens, f14, 1/40s, CPL filter.    

A view from the western gates. Kit lens, f14, 1/60s, CPL filter. A strange yellow smoke is seen here. Do nuns use sulfur additives or a cheap coal?

 

 A general view of the nunnery from chapels situated near a water well. Nikkor AIS 28 mm, f16, 1/80, CPL filter.

Goritsy revisited.

Goritsy, the last point of my quirky trip on October 5^th. Well, I should daresay, on one hand weather condition were the best for landscape shooting – mild light, shades, semi-transparent clouds, but on the other one an Arctic anticyclone covered the entire Vologda province, hence a cold near a large river was terrible. According to my camera time data it took just 25 minutes to make the entire series, but eventually that cost me dear – quite predictably I caught cold. Despite my car heater making its best all the way back, after a week everything resulted in a high temperature. Nonetheless, that was a success. Taking the last minutes of a day in lighting conditions like that is a rare luck.

By the way, the next night my mother mocked at me. As a person hailing from Ivanovo province she knows perfectly well what that means getting cold on a large river. 

Oil and canvas. A view from the shore dam. 

The standard kit lens AF-S Nikkor 24-85 mm 1:3,5-4,5G SWM VR ED. F11, 1/15s, CPL filter. Nothing extraordinary, this lens works well, but zoom is always zoom. 

The nunnery entrance. 

Cold weather, cold colours.  

Praising myself. My old good Nikkor AIS keeps on making its best and never disappoints.

F16, 1/10s, CPL. Nikkor AIS 28 mm, 1:2.

Let's add some red ochre.

No, of course, it didn’t look like that in any way, Corel and fantasy are suitable tools to be used in cases like that. F11, 1/10s, filters are unrecognizable. Typically it’s easy to discern them, but here this task is challenging.

Adding red ochre again. 

Nikkor AIS, f11, 1/6s.  

Resurrection cathedral. Nikkor AIS, f11, 1/10s, CPL.

Now feel the difference. Nikkor AIS, f11, 1/13s, skylight L1A. 

Evening light. Resurrection cathedral. CPL.

The same, another version.

Skylight filter found its application here.

The day is over. As usual try feeling the difference between skylight L1A and CPL filters. The old Nikkor AIS is everywhere.

F11, 1/8s, skylight L1A.

F11, 1/6s, CPL. 

North-westerly wind over Sheksna.

Nikkor AIS, f16, 1/8s, CPL.

Panoramic view of Sheksna.

F11, 1/20s, standard lens. I seem to have got completely frozen by the moment, since my old fix wasn’t used for this panorama. 

Panorama from a hill.